


the spirit of courage

by SunshineSpecs



Category: Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda) - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), NaNoWriMo 2019, all the others links should come in later, but im waiting to tag them, it's an oc and happens off screen tho, tagging major character death to b safe, time's janky hobo time aka post mm pre malon time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2021-01-22 15:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineSpecs/pseuds/SunshineSpecs
Summary: the spirit of the hero. the goddess. the demon king. the same lives, the same curse, doomed to continue until beyond the end of time. ending this cycle would be considered a mercy, not a murder.or: i have way too many opinions on the powers of the triforce of wisdom that ended up spawning this.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	1. house

Home was a word that lived in many places for Link. Home was his little cottage in the woods, with a small, lovingly tended garden and a bird feeder in a nearby tree. Home was in his brilliant wife, Queen Zelda Asteria, whose steel forged willpower drove her to stand and stare down the incarnation of evil and dared him to blink first. Home was in his friends, his very first, Asteria’s guards, Faezah and Valenz. Home was with his wonderful, adventurous, _determined_ daughter, Zelda Valeria. 

Home rested in so many places and people for Link, but no matter how much he tried, it never laid its head down within Hyrule Castle’s walls. Nevertheless, he leaned against its cold stone chuckling softly to himself as he watched a small, twelve year old girl making a mad dash across the castle grounds in bare feet, royal gown hitched up to her knees, and a host of guards frantically chasing her.

“_Princess! Princess, wait!” _

She did nothing of the sort, instead grabbing hold of a brick in the stone wall surrounding the castle, hoisting herself up, brows furrowed and breath heaving.

‘Huh,’ Link noted idly, ‘She’s improved.’ 

The guards gathered at the base of the wall, shifting restlessly as they watched the princess climb further and further out of reach until-- 

“Whatcha doing, _ ya kalba _?” A singsong voice rang out from the top of the wall.

The princess shrieked as she tried to regain her earlier drive, attempting to hoist herself up on the next stone, but found her hand slipping right off of it. As she frantically tried to grab at the stone, her footing grew shakier, and shakier and she was suddenly airborne, falling from nearly the top of the castle’s stone walls… right into the waiting arms of the general of the Hylian army. 

“Nice work, rustbucket! You almost _ lost _ her this time!”

The same singsong voice called down. The general in question glared up at the Sheikah woman lounging atop the wall.

“Yes, _ well_, if you _ must _ know, _ Faezah _ , I was doing my job! What were _ you _ doing up there? I doubt the head of security has much work to do that involves, _ relaxing _ on top of the castle walls! What’s next? Perhaps rescuing the queen from the rogue _ cheese platter _that’s been terrorizing the kingdom?” The general ground out. 

The guards around the wall started to disperse with haste, attempting to leave before the general’s ire was directed towards them. Unfortunately, the general’s gaze snapped over to the hastily retreating guards and, after checking the girl in his arms had covered her ears, bellowed, 

“YOU ARE THE FUTURE OF THE ROYAL GUARD OF HYRULE! IF FIFTEEN OF YOU-- NO, SIXTEEN, I SEE YOU, SAFRIS!-- CANNOT CATCH A SINGLE CHILD, YOU WILL BE RUNNING LAPS UNTIL YOU CAN CATCH LIZALFOS IN YOUR _ SLEEP _! UNDERSTOOD?”

  
  
“SIR, YES SIR!” was the resounding cry as the guards started jogging.

“FASTER!”

Any verbal affirmation was lost in the kind of din that could only stem from fifteen grown adult guards attempting to sprint in full head-to-toe plate armor.

“SAFRIS!”

Correction: _ Sixteen _grown adult guards. 

The general nodded, satisfied. He made a quarter turn on a heel, snapping back to face Faezah on the wall. 

“_W__ell? _” the general demanded.

“Y’know, you can drop the stick-up-the-ass routine, there’s no one else here.” 

“Faezah.”

“Valens.”

“Would it kill you to watch your language? For once?”

“Hmm, it just might, y’know! Then you’d be out a security chief _ and _ your only friend, and what a _ tragedy _that would be.” 

“I’m being _ serious _ , Faezah! She’s,” he gestured to the girl in his arms, who was beginning to look fairly cross at being talked _ about _ , “_twelve _ ! You know what twelve year olds are _ like _ ? She’s going to make some rude gesture or other that-- she picked up from _ you, _ by the way!-- to the _ queen _ and then I won’t have to worry about finding a new security chief _ or _ friend, because, you know why, Faezah? You want me to tell you _why_ Faezah?”

“Not rea--” 

“_Because we will be drawn and quartered where we stand.” _

Faezah rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively in Valens’s direction, “Relax, rustbucket, _ Valooma _ knows better than that, right?”

The princess looked at Faezah with the wrath of death mountain burning in her eyes. 

“That’s a yes, alright, moving on!”

  
Link suppressed a snort, although he really didn’t know why. He wasn’t really… audible, in any sense of the word. Not unless he tried. 

Faezah stood from her perch on top of the wall, and jumped down, rolling before stopping in a neat crouch, before standing and dusting herself off. The Sheikah woman was rather arresting, in the sense that she made people put a hand on their valuables and walk just a touch faster. Her wild white hair was tangled with leaves and sticks and various detritus, and the one eye that wasn’t covered had the sheikah symbol tattooed around it, her eye lined with blood red, the three triangles of the same color resting under her brow bone and the single blood red tear ran from her bottom lid to her jawline. She grinned at the princess, revealing a good deal more pointed teeth than occupy the mouths of the general populace. 

“So, _ young lady _ , what _ do _you have to say for yourself? You’ve raised an awful lot of hell today, huh?”

The princess paused, after Valens put her down, considering her choices of words, of which, she knew _ quite _a lot. She mumbled something spitefully, but Faezah’s eyes widened with glee, as she crowed,

“I’m sorry? What was that? Repeat that for the crowd, _ please!” _

The princess mumbled something again, slightly louder. Valens frowned, concerned, as he placed a gentle hand on the princess’s shoulder.

“You can tell us anything, you know that, _ Valerita _? I promise we won’t be angry, or ups-”

“_God fucking dammit, I was so close to getting the fuck out of here!” _The princess shouted.

Valens blinked. Then--

“**_Watch your language, young lady!_ ** **” **Valens exclaimed, scandalized. 

Faezah was cackling and clutching her stomach, wiping at her eye, “Ah, ya_ amira! _ What was the plan after that? Hope no one noticed a runaway princess? Habibti, I hate to break it to you, but your gown isn’t what I would call ‘inconspicuous’. And in broad daylight? Why’d you take the front entrance, _ all _ the guards are stationed around here! And--”

Valens coughed sharply, cutting Faezah off. 

“_Don’t.” _is all he says. Faezah certainly had a way with words, thought Link. Saying one thing, but meaning three others. Valens would know that better than anyone. 

Valens turns to the princess, crouching down to her level, keeping his hand on her shoulder,

“Valeria, I know you want to leave. I… I did, as well. When I was your age, I wanted to become a royal knight. Most people in my village led a quiet life, fishermen, weavers, merchants. They pushed me to be that, too. There’s honor in those trades, no doubt about it, but I was certain I was to be a knight. And you’re certain that you’re to be an adventurer. And, perhaps one day, you will. Hylia has a way of leading us to the path we’re destined for. Trust her to lead you to yours. And-”

Faezah inaudibly scoffed from behind the princess. Valens glanced up at her and back down at the girl. He patted her shoulder before straightening up. 

“You just need to give it time.” Valens finished.

Link winced. Valens was a good man, but he had the social graces of a rock, sometimes. Sure enough, the princess tensed up further. 

Faezah intervened, ruffling the princess’s hair, 

  
“Listen, when the worst of the infestation passes, let’s go to your dad’s cottage, okay? We’ll make some fresh honey candy and Valens’ll make some wildberry crepes.”

The princess’s shoulders started shaking. Faezah and Valens looked at each other with alarm. 

“Valeria--!” 

Valens tried again but that was as far as he got before the princess shoved his hand off of her shoulder, and took off running again, this time towards the castle. 

Link pushed himself off the wall and followed. That was all he really could do.

* * *

The princess screamed into her pillow and threw it to the ground.

“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this!!!! There’s nothing I can do!! Mom’s just going to let everyone _die_ until the stupid hero shows up!! Why _can’t_ we look for the hero?? Why won’t the hero come save the stupid day and then just _leave!_ _None of this makes any _**_sense_**_!!!_” 

Link watched his daughter throw a fit in her room, silent as always. He hung about awkwardly by the doorway, unsure whether or not he’d be intruding in her space but he wished could do more for her.

A pillow flew across the room, smacking into the wall to Link’s right. Valeria stomped over to grab it. She threw it back onto her bed, and flung her closet doors open, rifling through her assortment of gowns her mother had made for her. 

“Not ‘inconspicuous’, huh? I’ll be the most inconspicuous princess to ever have...inconspicuous-ed....” she trailed off as she seemed to realize a crucial detail. She didn’t exactly have any… inconspicuous… clothes… All of her clothes were simply too ornate or too heavy or too… _ much! _

Not for the first time, Link wished that he could pick up sewing again, although he doubted he could transfer the result into something usable. It really had been a while…

“...Oh.” Valeria said out loud, suddenly subdued. “I… forgot about this.” 

Link turned his attention back to the fashion crisis unfolding, only to see Valeria holding a package wrapped up with tough canvas cloth and sturdy rope, the kind sailors or adventurers would use, which was why he used it to wrap his ‘Daughter’s Day’ gift to Valeria. It wasn’t a real holiday, not to the rest of Hyrule, anyway, but every year, he’d spend the winter making something to give to Valeria the first time she could come to the cottage again in the spring. They celebrated Father’s Day on the first visit of spring, too. Valeria would give him a journal of every interesting adventure she had in the winter when she couldn’t see him. Link cherished every last one, placing them on the top book shelf, where he kept his and Asteria’s wedding photos, Valeria’s baby photos, and the last thing he had left from his hometown, a small, crudely carved flower his mother had given to him, when she was trying to pick up wood carving herself. Their Father’s Days and Daughter’s Days gave, he had hoped, both of them something to look forward to in the spring. 

It seemed like she didn’t open her gift this year. Link understood, but he wished she’d seen it all the same. It was the best Daughter’s Day gift he’d ever made, and he had been so excited to see her face when she opened it. Link turned to face the door. He didn’t want to see her open it now. 

Valeria took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tugging on the ropes, and carefully pulled the plain package open. Link heard her gasp, and knew she’d seen it. At her feet was a sturdy leather traveling pack. With plenty of pockets and snaps and straps, it was perfect for any kind of adventurer. It was also perfectly Valeria-sized. It had a little travelling canteen attached to the side and a sleeping mat rolled up at the bottom of it. The bag was filled with bits and bobs he thought she’d like in an adventurer’s kit. There were some potions, some medical supplies, and empty journals. He added a little whittling knife and a simple traveler's knife, with a little tinderbox and small cooking pot, along with a bar of soap and two sets of clothes and a cloak, all of which he made himself. He had been working on it on the side for a while, and he hoped he’d be able to show her how to adventure safely, come spring. 

Link heard a small choked off sob from Valeria, and felt tears welling up in his own eyes. He didn’t hold back his tears like Valeria but nevertheless, not a single sound came out. He cried, and cried, and cried, and clutched at his own arms in a facsimile of a hug and he could not stop and he could not be heard. He used to say that he liked the quiet of the woods and the quiet of his cottage, but there was always the creak of floorboards or the crackle of a fire or the sound of crickets and cuccos or just the goddess-given sound of his own little songs he hummed as he worked on the garden or a meal. He’d taken that freedom for granted and now it was gone. 

Link had to leave the room before he started crying again. Barely a moment seemed to have passed when the door slammed open and Valeria dashed out, fully changed into gear that he made and--

Link short-circuited.

Valeria had her long hair tucked into the even longer cap, and when she was wearing a replica of the outfit that Link himself wore so many years ago when he first started adventuring… She looked almost exactly like him. He didn’t know what he was feeling right at that moment but by Hylia he was feeling a _ lot _of it. Pride? Awe? Happiness? He didn’t need to know. 

Link watched as Valeria dashed down the corridor, cloak billowing out behind her, when he heard a low murmur of voices draw closer.

“HALT! Who do you think you--” Link heard Valens start before breaking out into a coughing fit. Faezah thumped his back twice, looking fairly unconcerned about her compatriot’s sudden predicament. She looked Valeria up and down, eye narrowed. Link saw Valeria’s breath catch in her chest as the moment stretched into minutes, before Faezah’s face flattened into surprise,

“Whatcha doin’ here, pipsqueak? Don’tcha know these’re the _ royal _ quarters? You really shouldn’t be here, you must be new!” Valeria breathed a sigh of relief, but Faezah’s foot tapped rapidly on the ground, arms crossed as she jeered, “So? Got any flavor for me? A job? Diplomat’s kid? Come on, spit it out.”

“Uh, y-yes! I.. am here to be… the royal… kitchen… cleaner!”

Valeria stuttered, sweat beading on her forehead and palms. Faezah’s jaw tightened imperceptibly, eyes crinkling slightly.

“Y’sure about that? ‘Cause you don’t sound so sure about that, kid.” 

“Yes! I’m here to be the royal kitchen cleaner! I’ve gotten horribly lost, though! I’ll be… going, right now! Yes! Good bye!”

The princess squeaked out as she sprinted past, before either of them could question her any further. Neither the general nor the Sheikah made any move to pursue the theoretical intruder. Link made no move to follow, either. As the princess rounded a corner, the general hissed at Faezah,

“_Why did you let her go!? She’s going to get herself killed! She could be going anywhere in the entire kingdom! Why, I ought to--” _

“She’s going to her old man’s cottage.” Faezah cut off bluntly, her voice lacking musical cadence it had before. 

  
“_How _could you _possibly_ know _that!?_”

“She had the iron key looped around her neck. Queen doesn’t like seeing her wear that, says its ‘unbecoming of her station’ or some shit. Princess only wears it when she goes there, she keeps in her lower left vanity drawer otherwise. She’s also dressed up in _ his _ gear, y’know the set he agonized over _ all fucking winter _ ? I’m also going to ignore the dig at my competence, _ Valens. _ In case you forgot, the security of the royal family is _ my fucking job. _” Faezah finished with a narrowed eye at the general.

The general looked like he was about to say something, but he cut himself off before starting again, 

“No, no, you’re… right, I apologize. That was most unbecoming of me. My worry for the princess seems to have overtaken my good sense, you are no less integral to the royal family’s safety than the royal guard. It’s just...”

Faezah face softened, 

“I know, Val. I miss him too.” She paused for a beat, “...I’ll go after the princess. She shouldn’t be alone, right now. You go cover watching the queen.” 

Valens snorted, “She’ll throw a fit when she realizes that her ‘disguise’ didn’t fool us, correct?”

Faezah grinned, her eye practically gleaming in the soft blue lighting of the corridor. 

“That’s only if she sees me.” 

She laughed as the shadows in the room seemed to grow longer and longer and then snapped back to Faezah’s lithe form, before they surrounded her entirely, obscuring her from Valens’s sight, and then she vanished entirely.

“I’ve still got a few spells she’s never seen.” Faezah’s disembodied voice crackled and contorted. 

The lights in the corridor went dark for a moment, and then when the dim emergency lighting flickered to life, Faezah was gone, shadow and all. Valens huffed a sigh, shaking his head and chuckled a bit to himself, voice cracking, 

“Oh, Din, I will never grow accustomed to that, never in a thousand years _ or _lifetimes for that matter.”

Valens started walking in Link’s direction, who started walking as well, to avoid the imminent collision, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Valens’s deep voice sound down the corridor,

“L...Link?”

Slowly, the man in question turned to face the general. Link opened his mouth to respond, but closed it when he remembered that no sound would come from his attempt. Valens wasn’t actually looking at him, though. The general’s eyes were trained on the ground near Link, who realized that there was a hole in the shadow cast by the lit braziers, right in front of him, instead the ground glowed in a faint sickly green, nowhere near the shade the fire could have produced. It was nigh imperceptible for one not been looking for it, or for one who hadn’t just been in a pitch dark room. The general cautiously approached the glowing spot on the floor, crouching down. Link took a step back, hands shaking. 

Valens looked up at where Link was frozen, and reached a trembling armored hand up to where Link’s chest was and passed clean through it to touch the brazier on the other side. Valens pulled his hand back, face crestfallen. 

“Hmph. Serves me right for believing in fairy tales.” He blustered with no one around him to fool but himself. Straightening up, he exhaled harshly, shaking his head. 

“Link… if… if you can hear me…. I am... sorry. I wish I had taken the time that Faezah and Zelda did to know you better. I think that, perhaps given time… we could’ve been friends. Valeria’s a wonderful girl, you know. She’s so very keen to explore the world, and to understand it, I’m worried that she’ll grow up a bit _ too _ fast. She’s a lot like both of you, that way. I’m teaching her the basics of sword fighting, by the way. She’s a natural, if not a touch impulsive. I know you wanted to teach her… but given the c-circumstances...I hope y-you don’t mind if I… fill in, I s-suppose.” Valens confessed quietly, choking back the tears welling up in his eyes“...It’s just difficult, sometimes, Link. The queen says it was a hunting accident, the populace thinks it was an assassination, and Faezah thinks it’s a conspiracy. I don’t know what I think, however… I wish I could’ve helped you. I wish I could’ve done more, been there for you, but now you’re dead, and now all I can say I did for you was bury you.”

He turned on a heel, and walked away but just before he rounded the corner, he looked back.

“...I hope your spirit found its way home.” Valens murmured to the long stretch of dimly lit, perfectly empty corridor, and, looking away, he turned the corner. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone this is my fake zelda game au, link's dead in this one! 
> 
> it would hypothetically b set centuries after breath of the wild. Link already had his adventure and saved the kingdom when he was 12, gaining the title "hero of heart". If you'd like more background on the au, don't hesitate to ask, my tumblr is sheikh-zelda.tumblr.com!
> 
> The language Faezah's speaking is arabic, most of it was terms of endearment, like "kalba" directly translates to "dog" but in meaning it's equivalent to "silly goose", or Valooma is an arabic diminutive, except those aren't as formally laid out but,,, yeah. (i literally have no idea how spanish terms of endearment/diminutives work, and if theyre anything like arabic, googling isn't gonna save me here rip) 
> 
> time will be introduced next chapter and twi&wild will be introduced in the chapter after that! i just need to lay down the groundwork for the original characters here. this is unbetaed and unedited because i'm doing this for nanowrimo, so.... we'll see how this goes! :D until next time!


	2. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valeria visits her dad, Faezah gets spooky and even the golden goddesses three don't quite know how we got to this point.

Link watched his daughter stumble through the woods, numb. How had Valens  _ seen _ him? Why now? Link had been invisible for the better part of two years now. He knew Faezah saw  _ something _ where he stood, because she always navigated around him rather than through him, but as for  _ what _ she saw, Link could only guess. 

Valeria tripped over another root. Link winced. The forest hadn’t been this devoid of light before that infection started spreading around Hyrule. Link exhausted himself regularly as he staved off the worst of the disease from the forest, thinning out his energy as a kind of shield against the land’s growing illness. As Link protected the forest, the forest grew to protect him, branches growing thick together, covering the forest from the worst of the daylight. The forest’s protection, however, didn’t extend to his daughter, it seemed. 

Valeria’s wide eyes darted around, constantly paranoid that she might run into some awful beast or monster that Faezah and Valens told her stories about to keep her from leaving the castle without supervision. 

This path had never seemed to terrify her so much before. Then again, she had never left the castle alone before, either. Her hands tightened her grip on the sides of her cloak as she started to walk faster. Link frowned, he had always tried to make his home a safe haven for her, a home away from the duties and demands of castle life. He thought that a child should have somewhere to be themselves, as silly and reckless and unfettered as they pleased, and back then, he thought he’d done quite well in that regard. Now, though it seemed like all that was left of that place was the memory. Link wasn’t overly fond of these woods nowadays, either. It was where the best days of his life were spent, but it was the site of his last one as well. Still, maybe someday this place would be a home again, and he owed it to his daughter to give her the choice. 

Valeria continued to trudge along the path she used to run down with glee, and slowly began to untense. She wasn’t relaxed, no, but a far cry from the paranoid mess she had been minutes before. As her confidence in the path returned, bit by bit, she quietly began to sing a song Link recognized. It was their travelling song. When Valeria was little and couldn’t make the journey out to the cottage, Link visited the castle as often as he could. When he had to leave, though, she used to cry and cry and cry, clinging to him with determined little fists, refusing to let go. Link had made up this song to sing to her when he left. When Valeria started coming to his cottage, she used to sing it to let him know she was close by, and he’d come out and sing the last few verses as she crossed under the wooden archway he had built when she was born. 

“My dear, it’s time for me to go,” she sang, “And though it’s sad, don’t cry because you know, that I’ve got one more song for you,” Link joined in, falling into step next to her, “To sing when we leave, and come back too! When the night’s grow long, I will sing this song! When the day goes wrong, I’ll sing this song! When you don’t feel strong, I’ll sing this song! When we say so long, I’ll sing this song just for you!” 

When she paused, Link continued, “Because there’s not much a song can’t do! A jaunty tune!”

“A jaunty tune!” Valeria hummed, and Link grinned, feeling his steps grow lively,

“Just for you!” 

“Just for me!” 

“And you’ll see, that though I’m gone, I’m with you,” Link choked a little bit as his throat grew tight, ”Because you know that I love you, and... I’ll... be seeing you soon.” 

He finished the little tune on a somber note, as Valeria crossed under the wooden archway, dull under the creeping tendrils growing onto it. She slowed her pace as she walked up the path that she had walked so many times before, and yet… Link felt a little hollow, at the thought that the cottage would be empty, that there would be no hearth or food to greet her, not even a smile for the first time in Valeria’s life.

When Link was a child, this cottage used to be his mother’s, so full of life, with herbs strung up about the ceiling to dry and little pieces of projects his mother had started or would begin strewn on every available surface. His mother’s home was magical to him, and it had cultivated a wonder about the world in him that stayed with him until the day he died. What he had forgotten about that place was what it looked like the day after her death, when he was twenty-three. The cottage had always been warm, pulsing with life, when he was a child, and as he had walked about it, sweeping up, cleaning the dishes, it had looked exactly like it had the day before, and the day before that, and the day before  _ that _ , ad infinitum. Even so, he couldn’t help but think that it didn’t feel like a home at all, like when his mother died, she took every warm thing with her. Seeing such a place lose its spirit  _ again  _ cracked something deep inside him. This was never what he had wanted for Valeria, he thought. He wondered if after she’d died, his mother had thought the same. 

Valeria stopped in front of the thick wooden door. Carved into its sturdy frame was fanciful depictions of his adventures, and his mother’s escapades, and her father’s tricks, on and on, telling the story of every person who’d they had called family. He had told her all of the stories he had remembered, and he remembered taking her hand and gently placing it on the empty space of the door, telling her that someday, she’d fill it up with  _ her _ adventures too. Back then, it seemed like the future blazed before them. Now, as Valeria’s fingers traced the carvings and flattened her hand in the empty space, it tasted like ash. 

Link hovered a spectral hand as close to resting on Valeria’s shoulder as he dared. Another, more solid hand fell to rest on the princess’s other shoulder,

“You ok, habibti?” 

Valeria jumped, turning around, “A-auntie! How did you find me!?” she stammered. 

Faezah snorted and came forward to ruffle her bangs, “Hmmm, nah. Not gonna tell you, kid, it’s job security, y’know?” the Sheikah woman frowned, “So why’re you all the way out here?”

Valeria didn’t respond, choosing instead to fling her arms around Faezah’s waist, hugging her tightly, as small, choked off sobs came from her throat. Faezah stiffened, looking fairly panicked, but gingerly wrapped her arms around the girl, hesitantly patting her hat. 

“Okay, okay, okay, dumb question, I know. Uh… there, there, Valooma, it’ll be… okay?” Faezah tried. Link tried to stifle a laugh. To her credit, it  _ did _ made Valeria stop crying for a moment if only to say, voice muffled,

“You’re… k-kind of bad at t-this, auntie.”

Faezah tightened her arms around Valeria, laughing as she said,

“Yeah well, next time, don’t sneak out and maybe you’ll get the one who actually knows how to handle crying childr--”

“‘m not a child,” Valeria mumbled, the shaking finally calming down. 

“But you are a kid and handling kids’ is Valens’s whole thing, you know he gets babies shoved at him at parades and stuff all the time like he’s Hyrule’s greatest babysitter, not general.” 

That got a laugh out of the girl, and Faezah sighed, probably relieved that she could keep this situation together long enough to get Valens to handle the rest,  _ later _ . Faezah stayed where she was, attempting to rub Valeria’s back in circles to get her to breathe normally again. Once she was confident that Valeria was steady, she pulled away and said,

“Hey, I can get a fire going out here, if you wanna roll out your mat. Give it a test run or something?”

Valeria sniffed and nodded. Faezah busied herself gathering wood. When she got the fire crackling, she sat back on her heels and steeled herself, before asking,

“Do you wanna go inside? I’ll wait for you here. Give you some space.” 

Valeria seemed to roll the idea over in her head, before making up her mind, 

“Yeah… There might be some stuff left there, I should probably take it back with me.”

Faezah nodded sharply, refusing to look at the princess. Valeria got up and, when she reached the door, took the key looped around her neck and carefully unlocked and pushed open the door. 

Link peered inside warily, before crossing the threshold. Upon his initial survey of the cottage, he grimaced. Just as he had suspected, everything looked nearly identical to when he had died, save for a few marks. It looked like Link was about to return any moment now, but— _ wait _ , was that the  _ tea _ he had made? Oh  _ dear  _ Hylia, that must be  _ rancid _ by now. 

Valeria didn’t seem to share Link’s misgivings as she reverently walked around the dusty cottage. Oh,  _ that’s _ where those books went, he thought as Valeria opened up a kitchen drawer. She grabbed the recipe book, shoving that in her pack, and, on second thought, turned back around and grabbed the nice ladle and knife from the rack. 

Link followed Valeria around as he watched her systematically go through everything this cottage held (he couldn’t call it his anymore, those rights expired about six months after he did). She pocketed a crudely carved rose (the first thing he’d ever carved), and a ragged book of poetry (his favorite), and a sturdy metal ring (his wedding ring). 

She pulled a chair from the breakfast table, and climbed up to see the topmost shelf. Valeria grabbed the wedding photos and family pictures from the shelf, but she left the journals she had written him as well as her baby pictures. She paused, as she was about to get down, and then reach up to the top of the shelf, and swept her hand wildly across it. Her hand connected with something that clattered to the ground. Tucking the photos away, she jumped off the chair and stared at the mystery object on the floor. 

It was a beautifully carved heart shaped gemstone that seemed to hold its own warm red light in its depths and she knew exactly what this was. It was the charm that he told her about in his stories, the Hero’s Heart. It was what let him unchain the minds of people under the malice’s control. He showed it to her once, and told her that he didn’t like carrying it, because it was no good seeing all the good and bad in people all the time. “You carry it for too long,” he once said to her, “You start to see good and evil as all there is. You stop seeing people for themselves.”. She curled her fingers around it, and, in what Link could only begin to explain as a fit of madness, he tried to clasp his hands around hers. To his amazement, his hands stayed. They still maintained their spectral nature, but  _ they stayed! _

As Link revelled in this wonderful new development, Valeria began to quietly speak to the empty room,

“...Hylia? I know I don’t, uh, call on you much, or actually, at all, but... dad did. He really believed in you. So… please. I just want my dad back. I promise I’ll never miss a Friday sermon again and be super good and stop running away and I won’t tell the duke that his hair looks like a rat threw up it, just please bring him back, or just let me talk to him one more time, or --- Fuck!” She yelled, dropping the stone on the floor, and just as quickly shouting at Faezah, “No, don’t worry, I’m fine!” 

Link had jumped back as well. His hands still sparked as he realized that the gemstone had responded to Valeria and his own presence, attempting to do what it did best— connect them. He had felt its pull that he hadn’t felt in so long he’d nearly forgotten it. The poor artifact tried and tried, and as it sparked red on the floor, it  _ still _ tried to connect them, but it seemed like Link was too far away for even a divine artifact to reach.

Valeria, oblivious to this, grabbed a pair of tongs and, from as far away as she possibly could, nabbed the stone with the tongs, and dropped it back on top of the shelf. 

“Hey, I know you said you were fine, but are you good in there? You’ve been in there for a while?” Faezah called from her place at the fire. 

Valeria scrambled down from the chair and shoved it back at the kitchen table. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I was just finishing up!” Valeria called back, doing a quick scan of the room and, hesitating for only a moment, she grabbed one of the swords that hung on the wall. Link smiled faintly, at least something good came of this. Her intuition was good— He had that one made for her, after his first few forays into smithing left him coughing up a storm. It wasn’t a replica, like the clothes, but something entirely her own. Link had hoped to teach her, but death really threw a cucco in the way of that plan. At least she had it now, even though the avenue wasn’t quite what he had expected it to be. 

Valeria made her way back outside, Link following close behind. 

“How’d it go?” Faezah asked, not taking her eyes off of the fire. 

“Everything…. Everything looks the same. I know… I know there’s no one here to change anything, but it just feels so wrong.” 

Faezah didn’t say anything in response, allowing them to sit in companionable silence. 

“Hey,” Valeria said, “Didn’t you say the infection reached the forest?”

Faezah frowned, looking at the princess from the corner of her eye, and let out a troubled sigh,

“Yeah, it did. It’s not moving like we expected, but it’s nothing that you should be worrying about. Go to sleep, we’ll head back at first light.” 

Valeria looked like she wanted to press more, but her eyes wouldn’t stay open, it seemed. Reluctantly, she burrowed into her cloak, and closed her eyes, drifting off to the sound of Faezah humming a tune that sounded awfully familiar to Link.

Link sat across the fire from Faezah, scrutinizing her. Physically, she looked like the same feral woman he’d know since they were kids, but, somehow… she looked… sharper, than before. Something about the way she carried herself, and the way she never relaxed, always keeping her one eye looking about for potential threats. He wondered if she was eating properly, she’d always forgotten to do that unless Valens or he reminded her. 

“Who are you.” 

Link blinked, looking around, wondering who she could be talking to. He didn’t think there was anyone else around, unless she was sensing someone with her magic—  _ Oh, Din, Nayru and Farore above what in the name of anything holy was that _ , he shrieked internally, as his eyes locked on to  _ both _ of Faezah’s.

The Sheikah woman had pulled back the hair that normally covered her other eye, leaving both of them exposed. One of her eyes was somewhat normal, the red one, with the tattoo around it, but the  _ other _ , the  _ other _ had a completely black sclera, with perfectly circular, perfectly white iris, marred only by the pupil, which didn’t seem to change  _ at all _ . The flat white was so bright it was  _ blinding _ . Sickly pink ooze crawled down her  _ other _ cheek, and sickly blue light shone from the cracks in the graying skin around her  _ other _ eye. Her characteristic jovial grin was absent, her sharp teeth bared at him instead— and had she always had  _ so many!?  _ Nonexistent bile rose from Link’s nonexistent stomach. He had seen what was under that signature tuft of hair precisely once, and now he sincerely wished it had remained a unique experience. 

“I said,” The woman ground out slowly, “Who. Are. You.” 

“I’m Link, Faezah, I’m  _ Link!”  _ He yelped, unsure why he even tried.  _ She wasn’t going to hear him. _ Sure enough, Faezah stood from the log she had been sitting on, and fingertips absorbing all the light around them, she stalked over to where Link was currently sitting, as he tried to shove himself back, back, back,  _ away _ from the woman, but she was far too quick,  _ grabbing _ onto the scruff of his  _ supposedly _ incorporeal neck. If these were his  _ ghost’s _ last moments, he didn’t want to have  _ that  _ eye staring at him, so quickly, he reached up and pushed that tuft of hair firmly back over that eye. The Sheikah looked at him incredulously. He awkwardly patted it over her eye, to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Who the hell are you? Answer the damn question!” She hissed at him. He waved his hands in the air, hoping to Hylia that it conveyed the exact emotion he was feeling right now, which he wasn’t sure what it was, but it was  _ a lot  _ of it. Faezah dropped him on a heap on the ground. He groaned, his whole body hurt. He didn’t even have muscles!

“Can you even talk?” Faezah asked, brow furrowed. She pushed back the tuft of hair and  _ golden goddesses he would never get used to that  _ ** _eye_ ** . He shook his head frantically. She sighed and said,

“Yes or no it is, then. Do you intend to inflict damage upon the royal family?”

Link sighed in relief. Faezah had spells to sense veracity and such, thank the  _ goddess.  _ He shook his head again, though he couldn’t help but notice that she didn’t ask about herself. 

“Are you following me?”

Head shake,

“Are you following the princess?”

Not specifically, no. He shook his head again. Faezah’s eye narrowed, the other remaining stone still. 

“Do you know me? Do you know the princess?”

He nodded, paused, and nodded again. 

“...Are you dead?”

He reluctantly nodded. 

“...  _ Do you know this place. _ ” Faezah asked, horror creeping into her voice.

Link paused for a moment, and then hesitantly, he nodded 

“ _ Ya din neela” _ she whispers, unable to take her eyes off of… whatever she was seeing, “...Link?” 

He stared at her. She got it. She knows! Someone knew he was still around! He shook his head to clear it, and then jumped, realizing she probably interpreted that as a negative, nodding with twice the energy. 

“Are you, or are you not, Link, the hero of heart?!” Faezah demanded, irritated, “Pick  _ one! _ ”

He nodded decisively, this time. Faezah stumbled back, leaning against a tree, 

“H-How?! No, don’t try to answer that— wait, fuck,  _ Hylian fuckin’ sign!” _

Link smacked his palm into his forehead. Of course.  _ Of course _ , he was an  _ idiot. _

“Sit by the fire, I need to keep an eye on  _ al amira sughayar.” _

When they situated themselves, Faezah plowed right ahead, 

“How did you die?” 

Link leveled an unimpressed look at her. Neither Valens nor Faezah knew  _ anything _ about tact. 

“Don’t give me that look, it’s important information. There’re so many conflicting accounts as to what happened to you that it’s impossible to parse.” 

He wiggled his fingers, contemplating his next words. 

“Murdered, not died.” He signed slowly, the motions coming back to him. 

Faezah heaved a sigh, 

“Yeah, I fuckin’ figured. People don’t hang around ‘cause they died in their  _ sleep _ . You see who did it?”

“Yeah.”

“...You wanna tell me? Whoever they are, they might go after the queen next,  _ or the princess _ .” 

Link mulled over what he should say, or how he should say it. Finally, he pinched his right hand’s fingers together, bringing them up to the right side of his nose, and crossing it to the left side. “ _ Flower _ ,” Then he raised both his hands above his head, and spread his index finger from his thumb, and brought his hands down in tandem at either side of his head, “ _ Crown.”.  _

The name sign of Queen Zelda Asteria Hyrule.

Faezah’s face contorts as she hissed “God  _ fucking _ damn it!  _ I knew it!  _ I  _ knew _ something was up with her!  _ You’re sure it was her?” _

“I’m fairly certain I remember my wife stabbing me in the stomach with my own sword and then stabbing me again to make sure I was dead, yes.” Link signed dryly. 

“...Do you know why she did it?”

“She was talking a lot about how she was fixing everything, how she was going to make sure this kingdom would survive…. I honestly thought she meant she was passing legislation to fix the Hylian infrastructure until she, well. You know. So, no. I really don’t.”

They sat in silence, for a long moment. Then—

“What would you do, to keep her safe?” Faezah asked, gesturing at the sleeping princess.

Link signed back immediately, “ _ Anything _ .” 

Faezah laughed morbidly, “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, I’m not sure you have much left to  _ give.”  _ As the last embers of the fire glowed, Faezah and her glowing white eye looked at Link, and said, “...Goodnight, Link. See ya on the flipside.”

The forest went dark once more. 

* * *

Somewhere else, in a realm beyond mortality, the three golden goddesses stared at the mess in Farore’s hands. 

“ _ That’s  _ the tapestry of time?” 

“ _ Well,  _ it doesn’t  _ usually look like  _ ** _this!” _ **

**“Peace** ** _, _ ** sisters, we must—”

“No, I don’t want peace, I want Din’s blood, what did you say about my weaving, huh!? You too scared to throw down?”

“ _ You want to fuckin’ go—” _

_ “ _ ** _SILENCE!_ ** ” Nayru’s voice echoed through realm. Once she was assured of the attention of the other two, she cleared her throat, and continued, “Ahem. My sincerest apologies, but I… may perhaps know the source of this ailment.” 

Din and Farore nodded, motioning ‘and?’. Nayru took a deep breath, and admitted,

“I believe a wielder of my fraction of the Triforce to be—” 

“Hang on, yours  _ does _ something? ‘Ru, I’m gonna be honest, I thought you thought it was a paperweight when we were imbuing the pieces with stuff, and forgot to do the imbuing and called it the Triforce of Wisdom to cover that up.” Din laughed.

“I thought it was a tracker, y’know, connected to like, the Triforce of Power, or something? Zelda totally gets kidnapped often enough for that to be a thing.” Farore added.

Nayru was a being of indescribable serenity and wisdom and her sisters pushed her to her immortal limits  _ every damn day _ .

She took a  _ deep _ breath, and explained, “There’s a problem right  _ here,”  _ pointing to a ball of string that’s getting more gnarled by the moment, “There’s a wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom in this time, a new wielder of the Triforce of Power, and— Huh. That’s odd. Farore, didn’t you have a Triforce wielder over here?” 

“Uh huh, Link!” 

“ _ Why did you choose to give the Hero’s Spirit to a boy with the same name twelve times?!”  _

“Narrows down the requirement list!” 

“ _ Anyways,  _ Farore, I hate to be the one to inform you of this, but Link Number 12 is, at this instance, dead.” 

_ “...What?” _

“Yes, I’m afraid so—” 

Farore rose from the place she had been lounging and attempting to unsnarl the upper portion of the tapestry, “No,” she said, “That shouldn’t be  _ possible _ .” 

“Well, it  _ is _ very possible, and Twelve is very dead.” Nayru stated impatiently.

“No, no, you don’t  _ understand _ . You know what I imbued in my piece?  _ Time _ . Pure, unfiltered  _ time _ . Time enough to rewind billions upon billions of mistakes,  _ time  _ enough to know how to press more seconds than should fit into a single moment,  _ time _ enough to forget what the fear of death tastes like,  _ because until their natural, Hylia-ordained death arrives, they. Can. Not. Die. So I will ask again, _ ” Farore said, drawing her words out, “ _ What do you mean by  _ **dead** ?” 

“...Take a look.” Nayru finally said, stepping aside. Farore stormed over, and was brought to a halt as she inspected the snarl. 

“Well, shit, that’s, uh... certainly a mess. Is he a fucking  _ ghost?  _ ** _How _ ** _ did that happen!? _ ” 

Din crosses her arms, “So then, what the fuck are we going to do? We can’t intervene, you  _ know _ that. The whole oracles debacle was  _ already _ enough of a disaster.”

“..._Directly. _We can’t _directly_ intervene. Din, Nayru, I think I know what we’re going to do.” 

“...Just don’t destroy more of the tapestry than you already have managed to wreck.”

“No promises!”

“ _ FARORE!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Faezah's again saying arabic diminutives, al amira means princess, or the princess, sughayar/a means small or little.
> 
> Thank you for your patience for this chapter! I had written it initially two days after I had posted the first chapter, but I wasn't satisfied with it, so I scrapped it and rewrote it. It's like three times as long, and I also have chapter three already written! I will post that on Sunday, and *that* has Time in it. This got away from me a little bit! Thanks for reading, please leave a kudos or a comment if you liked it! :D


	3. found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The princess is sneaky and Time gets arrested

“You’re gonna use the grate on the underside of the castle drawbridge.”

“Yes.”

“And when you get out, you’re going to get to the entrance to the kitchens?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You promise me you won’t do anything stupid with the passages?”

“No stupid things, yeah.”

“Go into the back storage room for the kitchen, and on the floor at the back right corner of the room there’s a trap door. Go through it, and you’ll be safe. Don’t forget the map!”

“_Yes, _ Auntie, I get it! I’ll sneakily sneak into the castle sneakily! Can I _ go _now?”

Faezah raised an eyebrow, “Is that an attitude I’m hearing from you? Is that what it is? Y’know if your mom catches you, and it’s over for _ both _ of us, right?” 

Valeria rolled her eyes, “Good _ bye! _” 

She took off into the forest as Faezah laughed to herself,

“Golden Goddesses, that energy in her is really is something else.”

All traces of laughter faded out of her face as a more troubled expression took hold. She turned to the small cottage, walking to the small patch of disturbed earth, with a large slate stone placed at its head. Placing a hand on her heart, she formally intoned,

“My sworn duty is to protect the royal family and in that duty I have failed you, Link. By Din as my witness, I will seek justice for your blood. By Nayru as my witness, I will seek to protect your kin. By Farore as my witness, I will never allow this wretched fate to befall another. May the golden goddesses three strike me dead. May your lost soul find peace.”

She took a knife from her side and nicked her finger, allowing the crimson to well up and fall on the churned earth, as her features hardened. 

“Hear these words, my friend,” she said as she turned from Link’s grave, ”You _ will _ be avenged.” 

* * *

Valeria ran through the woods as the early morning light washed over the trees, humming to herself. She was going to go through the _ secret passages! _ She’d asked and begged and pleaded for Faezah to tell her where they were before, but her aunt had always just laughed it off and ruffled her hair, teasing,

“Maybe when I can’t use you as an armrest anymore I’ll tell you,_ ya sughiyara _!” 

But Faezah_ told _ her! Today! Valeria’s heart raced and her face had a wide grin plastered all across it. As she reached the mouth of the forest, she slowed down, though she did keep humming an upbeat little tune. She crept along the edge of the moat, careful to keep an eye out on the guards’ rotation. 

1...2...1....2..._ gap! There we go, _Valeria snickered to herself, as she darted under the drawbridge to the small piece of land between the moat and the land. She grabbed onto the hand holds on the moat that Faezah mentioned off hand, and crept along the underside of the bridge, letting go when she hit land on the other side. 

She slowly slid the grate out from its initial position and crawled in, sliding the grate back much less carefully with her boot. The tunnel looked like it was constructed for someone of a fairly slender build, but even though she had to hunch her shoulders to move forward, she managed to squeeze herself into the tunnel. 

Just as the tunnel’s wall started to close in on her, she saw the other end come into view. Crawling as quickly as she dared, Valeria eagerly reached out and slid the grate out, heaving herself through the gap as quickly as possible onto the cold stone floor in a heap. Scrambling to her feet, the princess tried to orient herself. The sounds of the hustle and bustle of the kitchens filled the hall as she spotted the door that Faezah had to have been talking about at the hallway’s end. 

She dashed past the kitchen’s main entrance, to the small storage closet. Pulling the door shut behind her, she felt around the floor for the trap door in the back. She felt one on in the middle of the floor, though the bulk of it was flush with the stone surrounding it. Pulling it up, she dropped down into a narrow but tall passage. Valeria vibrated with excitement, pulling the map out from her pocket, before realizing that it was too dark to read. Shrugging, she put it back, she wouldn’t _ really _ need the map, it was the _ castle _, she knew this place like she knew the back of her own hand! 

__________________________

Valeria was so, _ so _ very incredibly lost. She’d gone forward, left, right, down, found the dungeon, backtracked to where she _ thought _ the kitchens were, found a ladder, climbed _ that _, went right, right again, and up the tallest ladder she’d ever seen in her life, which landed her where she currently was-- listening to her mother intone orders to her underlings through the walls. She could even sort of see the queen, though it was a weird angle. The queen stood apart from her throne, with her shoulders squared, she held her staff in one hand, her logbook in her other. Her golden crown stretched down her nose like a war helm, and she wore a full golden breastplate with dual paulandrons and vambraces, with a regal purple dress beneath it. 

Ugh, _ Hylia, _ why’d she have to get stuck _ here _ of all places?! Her mom was so _ boring! _ She never had time to talk to her, always wanting more from the princess, more manners, more stillness, more poise, more interest in her education, more, more, more! Nothing was ever enough for her _ Majesty _ Queen Zelda Asteria Hyrule! Sometimes, Valeria wished she had a normal family, that she wasn’t a princess and she could do whatever she wanted without having the ‘future of Hyrule!’ speech shoved down her throat. 

Her brooding was interrupted by a guard rushing in, and dropping to a knee in a bow,

“Your majesty! Permission to speak?” the guard asked, breathless. The queen merely inclined her head at him. He snapped to his feet in a full salute,

“Ma’am! There is an ill dressed man in green requesting immediate audience. H-He claims that he is the Hero of Time?”

The queen coolly surveyed the guard, whose salute was shaking imperceptibly, and allowed the moment to drag on for just a touch longer than comfortable.

“Bring him in.” She ordered. Valeria’s eyes widened. This could be the new hero! The kingdom was going to be saved! The princess could hardly breathe through her glee, until the doors clanged open once more, leading in a blond man with braided hair, dressed in shabby green clothes under a cloak that had been pushed back, with a big tattered scarf wrapped around his neck and a blue… _ something _ at his hip. He also had the biggest eye bags she’d ever seen on another living human being. 

The man didn’t kneel or salute to the queen, and Valeria winces, her mother did _ not _ appreciate departures from ritual formalities. Instead, he spoke,

“Your majesty, Queen Zelda, I had been wandering through Hyrule field when I fell through a doorway of light. When I came to, I did not recognize anything, 

The queen considered his words for a moment, before stating,

“You are learned in the art of patience, yes? It is, after all, a trait most befitting a hero.”

The man blinked. 

“...Yes?”

“Then you will not mind if it is tested for a short time further. Guards, take him to the dungeon.”

The man’s eyes bugged out, “Hey! All I need is to get home!”

The queen was unmoved by his pleas, “Ser Hero, if that is who you claim to be, how many impostors do you think I entertain on a daily basis?”

“Uh---”

“At minimum, _ five _. I am the ruler of a kingdom, not an imbecile. You will go to the dungeon, and in the dungeon you will stay until your words can be verified. That is all.”

Valeria watched, horrified, as the guards grabbed the man by the either arm, dragging him away. Maybe she could convince her mom to let the poor man go?, she thought as the man struggled against the guards grip, managing to undo his left bracer and glove,

“_ Look!” _He shouted as glowing golden triangle gleamed on his hand, “This is the triforce of courage, that can’t be forged!”

The guards loosened their grip on him in shock. He really was the hero, Valeria thought, grinning. The queen’s brows raised for a fraction of a second before smoothing out once more. 

“_ That _ can be forged easily enough through some more… _ eclectic _uses of stardust. Now, take him to the dungeon before his delusions eat up the time better used towards _ other _matters.”

The princess could only stare at her mother, as she watched the man finally get dragged through the doors. She was about to come out and tell her mom _ exactly _ what she thought about that decision, when she noticed her mother turning to Valens and discreetly drawing a line across her throat. 

Valeria froze. They were going to _ kill _ this man? She couldn’t let that happen. She wasted no time in running back down the passageway, carefully retracing her steps back to the dungeon, where she heard the sound of a man yelling at the guards, before she heard a loud _ clang _, undoubtedly the dungeon door shutting. She crept up to a crack in the wall, peering through it. She could see the man’s profile, sitting and leaning against the dungeon wall, his sunken eyes closed.

“I know you’re there.”

Valeria let out a startled _ eep! _, covering her mouth immediately as that happened. The man’s eyes weren’t as closed as she thought, as he looked directly at the spot in the wall she was. 

The man let out a harsh laugh, 

“I _ am _ a touch more perceptive than that, little one,” He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall, smiling wryly, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” 

Valeria gripped the fabric above her heart. He seemed decent enough, _ and _ he had the triforce on his hand… But what if her mom was right? What if he was another impostor? No impostor had been like him before, though. Despite what her mom said… no one had tried to fake the _ triforce _. Agh, why was this so difficult? She didn’t know what to do! 

Taking a deep breath, she tried to imagine what her dad would’ve done. She had no trouble at all picturing her father’s kind voice, and his careful hands undoing the lock and sneaking the man out. He’d done the same with animals caught in traps, kids who were dared to vandalize the hero’s home, even with people who tried to fight him. His big heart got him into trouble sometimes, her mom had said, but her dad always grinned and ruffled her hair, saying that he’d have regretted not even _ trying _ to reach out more than any consequences. 

Exhaling, she opened her eyes and steeled herself. 

“I’m going to get you out of here!” She declared, as loudly as she dared. 

The man looked at her impassively from the corner of his eyes, “...Okay.” He said flatly, “What do you get out of this?” 

Oh Hylia, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. 

“Could you… help me save my home? That’s really all I want, honest!” 

The man paused, for a moment. Then--

“I’d genuinely rather eat a rusty sword.”

“B-but _ why? _ If no one does anything, there’s not going to be enough land to grow food!”

“_Then trade for it! _ Adapt! It’s _ not _ my issue!” He ground out, agitated. The princess bit her lip, and made up her mind. Trying to copy the tone she’d heard in her adventure books, she said,

“You know that you’re slated for execution, right? I’m your best chance to get out of here alive!” 

The man’s face dropped, “Execution.”

“Mmhmm.”

“On the morrow?”

“At dawn tomorrow, yeah!” 

“The golden goddesses never sleep, do they?,” He ground out as he got to his feet “Fine. I’ll help you save your kingdom. Just get me _out_ of here.” 

They stood in silence for a long moment, before the man stated, “You haven’t got the faintest idea what you’re going to do, do you, little one.”

“Uh... I might’ve rushed myself here a bit _ too _ fast?”

The man rolled his eyes, and pointed to a rather small pack hanging on a hook on the wall on the other side of the cell. “Grab that, and get that to me, please. I might be able to figure something out.”

The princess gulped and nodded, and then when she realized he could barely even see her, quickly whispered out an affirmation. She padded around the passageway, looking for an exit. After a few minutes of clumsily moving about in the dark, she spotted a faint light coming from the bottom part of the wall. Yes! She got on her knees and pushed the trapdoor open, crawling out into _ another _ supply closet. She opened the door a crack, and seeing no one, dashed out to the dungeon. It… _ was _ kind of weird that there wasn’t any guards, here especially, but Valeria counted her blessings. She grabbed the bag off the hook, and almost dropped it. The small bag was about as heavy as three of her travelling packs! She pushed it through the bars of the cell, and wondered what could possibly be in there. 

The man, without an ounce of hesitation, stuck his arm shoulder deep into the little bag. The princess blinked. The man muttered,

“No… not this… not this…. _ Definitely _ not this, you stay in your chains where you _ belong _… Aha! Got it!”

He said triumphantly as he held up a red crystal. He slung the bag across his shoulder and put his cloak back on. 

“Little one, you may not want to be in the room when I use this. You might get hurt.” 

Valeria backed out of the room, but kept the man in sight. She _ really _ wanted to know what that hunk of rock was going to do. 

The man took a deep breath and… _ floated _ the crystal in one hand, holding it without actually _ touching _it. His eyes flashed red as he slammed his other hand into the bars with brutal force, and a ring of fire erupted from him, melting through the bars almost instantly. Valeria shielded her eyes from the intensity of the light… And then there was nothing. The fire died down, cooling supernaturally quickly, and the man stepped through the newly created gaping hole in the cell. 

“H..._ How did you know that would work!? That was so cool!” _Valeria almost shrieked. 

The man looked down at her, and said, gravely serious,

“I hadn't the_ faintest _idea that was going to work.”

Valeria slowly nodded, mentally noting that the ‘just wing it, I guess?’ strategy had some serious points in its favor. The man looked at her, curious,

“What’s your name, little one?” he asked, “I can hardly keep calling you _ little one _ after all. I’m Link.”

Valeria’s brain short circuited. There was far too much going on right now. His name was _ Link _ !? Really? And she _ couldn’t _ say her name was Zelda. She wasn’t _ that _ dumb.

“My name’s Link, too.” She blurted out before she could think of an actually believable lie. Okay. Maybe she wasn’t that dumb, but she was definitely getting there. The man-- _ Link _, raised an eyebrow. 

“Really.” 

“Yep! Isn’t that weird! That’s not really a common name, y’know!” Act natural, act natural, he’s gotta buy it-- 

“Interesting.” _ Shit! _“We should probably get going before we run into the---”

A large man marched into the room, bumping into Link._ Valens. _ Valeria pulled her hood up before he could see her face. 

“Sir---” Was as far as the Hylian General got before Link grabbed the princess and started running.

“Where do we go from here!?” Link shouted, 

“Follow me!” The princess shouted, as the sound of metal on stone grew louder by the second. She deftly wove through the halls and pulled Link up the cellar stairs, hearing shouts from behind her. She grinned. Running the guards in circles was her _ specialty _. 

When they reached the first floor, Valeria grabbed hold of one of the many decorative suits of armor and pushed it horizontally down the stairs they just came from. Alright, dungeon guards slowed down, and if Valeria wasn’t mistaken, the domestic guard should be-- 

“THERE THEY ARE! CAPTURE THE PRISONER AND HIS ACCOMPLICE!”

Yeah, right on schedule. She turned around on a heel and started running in the opposite direction-- right in the direction of the window. 

“What the hell are you doi-- _oh sweet Farore,”_ Link shrieked as Valeria kicked the window open and dove through, rolling out onto the castle lawn. 

“Come on!” Valeria shouted, “We gotta _ go! _” 

He jumped out and rolled more smoothly than Valeria expected of a guy who looked three seconds away from passing out of exhaustion. They had to go _ now _ or the grounds’ guards would round the corner and then they’d be screwed. 

As soon as Link stood up, Valeria grabbed his arm and _ sprinted _ across the grounds. Half way through, Link scooped her up, 

“I’ve got longer legs, where to?” 

Valeria pointed at the castle gate, where the drawbridge was.

“That’s the only safe way out of the castle, the walls are too difficult to climb!”

Nodding, Link sprinted across the field in record time, when a booming shout sounded behind him,

“PULL THE DRAWBRIDGE! CLOSE THE GATES! NOW!” 

Valens, _ again. _The gates started to close, but Link managed to get through and race up the raising drawbridge, jumping off of the end in a desperate bid to reach shore. 

For a moment, they were airborne. The next, they hit the ground, _ hard. _ Groaning in pain, Link nevertheless stood up and helped Valeria onto her feet.   
  


“We need to keep going, who knows how long it’ll take them to send out search parties.” 

“Where are we going?” Valeria asked, and Link stared at her,

“I thought _ you _ knew where you were going?” 

“Well…”

“Din save us, _ do you know anything about the geography here?” _

“Sort of?” 

“Sort of? Do you know it, or do you not?” 

“I know where the Zora’s Domain is, and where the Rito towns are, and where the Faron Sanctum is, _ and _ I know where Gerudo Town is, _ and _\--”

“Wait, what’s the Faron Sanctum?” Link interrupted.

“The forest that they say Farore herself protects? The one where you go in, you get lost and turn into a big scary monster or something?”

“That sounds like the Lost Woods! If you can get us there, I can get us through to a safe spot in there.”

Valeria grinned, “Then let’s go, before the guards come back!” 

With that, the two took off into the forest, Valeria throwing one last glance back at Hyrule Castle.

‘I’ll save us all,’ She thought, ‘I promise.’ And she turned her back to the home of her family and ran into the forest.

* * *

Deep in Hyrule Castle, Queen Zelda Asteria Hyrule stared down her most trusted subordinates.

“_V__alens _.”

“Yes, your majesty?” The general’s voice held steady while his hands did not.

“I was under the impression that you were _ guarding _ the prisoner.”

“I-I was!” 

“_Then how did he escape?” _ The queen pinched the bridge of her nose, and turned to the other person in the room, “Never mind that, where is my daughter, _ Faezah? _” 

Faezah refused to flinch, and stared straight back at the Queen, her shoulders squared.

“I don’t know. I followed her into the castle, and then let her be. She might just be hiding.” 

The queen narrowed her eyes, “And why would she be _ hiding_?” 

Faezah shrugged, “She’s almost a teenager, it’s not like that’s out of the ordinary.”

Valens stayed silent, refusing to look either the queen or Faezah in the eye. The queen sighed and closed her eyes. After a moment’s deliberation, her ice blue eyes snapped open as she addressed them both, “General Valens, General Faezah, as of this moment, I have tasked you with one mission,” she stated,

“_Find my daughter.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Faezah saying sughayara and stuff is basically "little one" or "short stack"!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I should have chapter four done next week lmao nanowrimo went ok for like a week and then it super tanked. Let me know what you think in the comments!


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